


Justice

by virdant



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: AU where Padme makes one (1) good decision re: the Tusken Massacre, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Conversations, Gen, Justice, Tusken Raiders (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:59:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26792518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdant/pseuds/virdant
Summary: “They were animals!” Anakin shouts, again.“They are sentient,” Obi-Wan says, again. “They are the indigenous people of Tatooine.”And even if they were animals, Obi-Wan thinks, that does not justify your slaughter. The Jedi hold all life to be precious. How many times has he taken Anakin into the Room of a Thousand Fountains and let him pet the lothcats that have made their home in the burrows? Would Anakin take his saber to them as well? Would he justify his actions by saying that they were merely animals, that they had hurt him so they deserved it? He has always trusted Anakin with this—to cradle the bright lights within the Force with care. He thought that Anakin’s past, Anakin’s time in the Jedi, Anakin himself; he has always thought that they were in alignment, that Anakin Skywalker would cherish life as the precious commodity that it is.--Post-Geonosis, Padme confesses that Anakin murdered the entire Sandpeople village, and Obi-Wan faces Anakin in the fallout.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 39
Kudos: 572
Collections: favourite fics from a galaxy far far away





	Justice

**Author's Note:**

> from alex's prompt in the discord, asking about what it would be like if padme just... told somebody that anakin murdered a bunch of sentient women and children instead of marrying him.

“You can’t _make_ me!” Anakin shouts. He’s angry. He’s been angry, for weeks now. He oscillates between shouting and screaming every time Obi-Wan steps in to talk to him. “They’re animals! They deserved it! I won’t go!”

“You cannot stay,” Obi-Wan replies. This is a conversation that they have had over a dozen times. Every time they have it, grief wells up in him. He closes his eyes, as he always does. “You have broken the Code.”

You have, he thinks, betrayed my teachings.

In the wake of the Battle of Geonosis, Padme came to him. Said, softly, “Obi-Wan, I don’t know who else to talk to.” Laid out a story of Anakin, on Tatooine, of him leaving to look for his mother and coming back with his robes dark with blood and the slaughter of innocents on his hands. Whispered, “He said there were children, Obi-Wan.”

Anakin would not have, Obi-Wan wanted to protest. But he did not. He curbed the instinctive rise of defensive instinct, recognizing it as his own anxieties over his teachings. Instead, he listened to Padme’s entire story. He waited for her words to run dry. He listened.

He listened, and listened, and then he said, “Thank you, Padme, for trusting me.”

“He wants to get married,” Padme whispered, at the very end of the conversation. “But I don’t know if I can.”

What was, Obi-Wan thought, one more betrayal of his teachings? And as Padme left, he bowed his head and grieved for the padawan he was once proud of.

He grieved Anakin, and now Anakin stands, unrepentant and furious. He’s been furious. Obi-Wan can recognize now, that the fury comes from fear—that his fears coming true has made him only more angry, only more volatile. It is, again, another mark of his failure. That in all of his years of teaching Anakin, Anakin learned to hide his feelings instead of facing them head-on. That all of those hours of meditation, those many long sessions where Obi-Wan talked and shared and taught—they all have fallen to the wayside as Anakin chose the easy path.

A part of his grief, he knows, is for himself. For his own failure. He lets it ache, inside of him. Once this is settled, he will pull it out, lay it before him, and look closely. He will go to Master Yoda and they will look at these long years, look at everything that happened, reflect and learn and grow. But for now, he sets it aside. There are more pressing concerns, and he must see to it that this is settled.

“They were animals!” Anakin shouts, again.

“They are sentient,” Obi-Wan says, again. “They are the indigenous people of Tatooine.”

And even if they were animals, Obi-Wan thinks, that does not justify your slaughter. The Jedi hold all life to be precious. How many times has he taken Anakin into the Room of a Thousand Fountains and let him pet the lothcats that have made their home in the burrows? Would Anakin take his saber to them as well? Would he justify his actions by saying that they were merely animals, that they had hurt him so they deserved it? He has always trusted Anakin with this—to cradle the bright lights within the Force with care. He thought that Anakin’s past, Anakin’s time in the Jedi, Anakin himself; he has always thought that they were in alignment, that Anakin Skywalker would cherish life as the precious commodity that it is.

“They killed my mother!”

“You are a Jedi,” Obi-Wan replies. “You swore to protect all life. To set the needs of the galaxy above your own.” It was not the full set of vows that Anakin would have sworn when he was Knighted. Anakin is not a Knight yet. Anakin will never be a Knight. But even Padawan took oaths before they went out into the galaxy. Obi-Wan had been there, when Anakin swore to uphold the Code: protect the innocent, to be true to the Force. Obi-Wan was preparing to teach Anakin the oaths he would swear as a Knight.

He would not teach Anakin these oaths, anymore.

How can he trust Anakin to be a Jedi, to protect the innocent, when he knows that Anakin has raised his saber against the defenseless? How can he trust Anakin to be fair to the guilty, when he knows that Anakin will set his personal desires over the Force’s will?

“You swore to the Code,” Obi-Wan says.

Anakin snorts. “The Code,” he mutters. “You didn’t have to tell the Council.”

“I could not ignore this, Anakin.”

It is a conversation that goes, around and around. They have been having it for weeks now. Anakin refuses to listen, refuses to reflect, refuses and refuses and refuses, and Obi-Wan stands before him, wondering how the padawan he raised has turned into this. How Anakin can be so defensive and stubborn. How Anakin can choose to slaughter the innocent when it is within his capability to offer mercy. How Anakin chose to be judge and jury and still does not see why he cannot do so and remain a Jedi in service to the galaxy.

It is a conversation that has been repeated a dozen times, already, and Obi-Wan says, “You must return to Tatooine.”

“I’m never going back there,” he hisses.

“You must,” Obi-Wan says. “Tatooine is not a part of the Republic, but you cannot murder and think that you will not face justice.”

Anakin’s face flushes, angry.

Tatooine was the Sandpeople's first. For all that the planet is now held by the Hutts with an iron fist, the wild sands of the desert remain under their cultivation. The desert is their land that they settled on, their land that they cultivated, and it was on their land that Anakin went to one of their villages and slaughtered their women and children. Anakin was a Jedi, and he chose violence instead of peace. Anakin was a Jedi, and he chose revenge instead of justice.

So, the Jedi will offer what Anakin did not. They will offer justice for Anakin’s actions. They will offer peace between their communities. They will send Anakin to Tatooine, to stand trial before a court of the Sandpeople, to face justice and punishment and redemption for his actions.

“You can’t make me go,” Anakin says again, unrepentant.

Obi-Wan has done his best, as Anakin’s master, to offer options. To never force, but to gently steer. He has always done his best to give Anakin a choice, and to guide him towards the right choice. He has, in these ten past years, avoided making Anakin do anything, knowing that one day Anakin must stand in the galaxy as a Jedi Knight and the Chosen One and choose the Light.

Obi-Wan says, “This time, I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> ~~maybe don't marry mass murderers, padme~~
> 
> after some long talks and research, it's been brought to my attention that tusken is short for tusken raider, which refers to (in legends) a fort that the sandpeople attacked, and that the sandpeople (again in legends) refer to themselves as sandpeople. until i get word otherwise from canon, i'll be switching my terminology over to sandpeople in fic. ty especially to void for providing links and giving me the good info!
> 
> i have a lot of feelings about the sandpeople massacre and i yell about them a lot. here are some ways to talk to me:
> 
>   * find me in salt town
>   * Follow me on twitter [@virdant](http://virdant.twitter.com)
>   * [Like & retweet on twitter](https://twitter.com/virdant/status/1312377956002459648)
>   * Comment and kudo below
> 



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